Best Tours in Amsterdam
Enjoy self-guided audio tours with included attraction tickets in one appTop sights in Amsterdam
All self-guided activities
Explore the Royal Palace of Amsterdam with an entrance ticket and an audio guide included! The audio guide device is provided in the palace. The palace stands on Dam Square, right in the middle of the city. It embodies the spirit and wealth of the Dutch Golden Age – the period of exceptional blossom of trade, science, and art for the Dutch Republic. Follow in the footsteps of royal guests and explore lavishly furnished rooms of the Palace. Be amazed by the marble grandeur of the Citizen’s Hall. See the splendid throne room, and discover unique works of Dutch artists adorning the chambers. After a visit to this magnificent building, choose to continue your journey along Amsterdam's cobblestoned lanes and canals with a self-guided audio tour in the WeGoTrip app. From the hustle of Dam Square to the tranquility of the Old Church, each step will offer you a story, a fact, or a hidden detail that stitches together the fabric of this lively city. The tour will conclude at the lively New Market Square, a dynamic space, offering typical Dutch treats.
This self-guided audio walking tour explores Amsterdam's evolution from a medieval dam village to a tolerant trade powerhouse. The ticket to BODY WORLDS Amsterdam is included, letting you dive into real plastinated bodies revealing anatomy and health secrets in a Gothic church setting. (!) Please note that while your entrance ticket to BODY WORLDS is available within the app, the audio guide inside the exhibition is not provided. After you finish exploring it on your own, unpause the tour and continue along the route, which traces a lively path through central Amsterdam ending at De Waag in Nieuwmarkt square. You'll wander past Dam Square's Royal Palace, the Red Light District's coffeeshops and Condomerie, the 700-year-old Oude Kerk, secret Catholic chapels, leaning Dancing Houses, and multicultural Zeedijk Street amid canals and markets. Along the way, savor unforgettable sights like the National Monument's stark pillar, Warmoesstraat's leather bar legacy, and De Waag's crenellated towers overlooking herring stalls.
Get to know the lives of people around the world at Wereldmuseum Leiden, an eye-opening museum of ethnology. Lovingly arranged by cultural region, thousands of objects tell the stories of human experience around the world. Now _that's_ a day well spent!
Welcome to Playhood! Leave your shoes and coats and get comfortable in a cozy lounge. When the play session starts, the cafe and play area open up for everyone. Enjoy coffee and croissants while the kids have fun. They can even make their own pizzas at Good Hood Pizza! The play area has 12 themed houses where kids can create their own stories. Playhood is a place for imagination and fun. Each session lasts 1.5 hours, starting and ending together for a shared, joyful experience.
The ticket to the Fabrique des Lumières Dutch Masters exhibition "From Vermeer to Van Gogh" is included in this self-guided walking audio tour through Amsterdam’s changing cityscape. The route starts at Fabrique des Lumières in the Westergas area, where red-brick gasworks buildings now house immersive digital art. Please note that while your ticket to the exhibition of Dutch Masters "From Vermeer to Van Gogh" is included and available within the app, the inside audio tour is not provided. After you finish exploring it on your own, unpause this tour and continue your walk through the streets of Amsterdam. You will walk through Westerpark, pass the stately Haarlemmerpoort, and continue along Haarlemmerstraat to Posthoornkerk. The tour then leads into the Jordaan, with stops at the canal-side corner of Papeneiland and the neighborhood square of Noorderkerk, before reaching the civic center at the Royal Palace and Dam Square. From the busy streets near Central Station, the walk ends at Oude Kerk in Amsterdam’s oldest neighborhood. Along the way, you will see industrial halls turned cultural spaces, a surviving city gate, church facades that reflect changing faith, quiet canals edged by leaning houses, and the broad stone stage of Dam Square.
Death might not be the chirpiest subject, but as an unfortunate fact of life, it's something that all cultures deal with in unique and interesting ways. At Amsterdam's Museum Tot Zover, delve into the ways we make sense of mortality, with fascinating permanent and temporary exhibitions featuring hair paintings, death masks, post-mortem photography, coffins, urns, and other cultural-historical artifacts related to the passing of life. The museum creates stimulating exhibitions with social relevance and offers a podium to artists, designers and photographers alike. The museum dares to be boundless in its choice of themes, but always goes for content and relevance over sensationalism.
A ticket to Madame Tussauds Amsterdam is included in this self-guided audio walking tour of Amsterdam’s historic center. Please note that an audio tour inside Madame Tussauds Amsterdam is not provided within this bundle. After you finish exploring Madame Tussauds, unpause the tour and move to the Royal Palace, then, into narrow lanes near Heisteeg and Warmoesstraat. From there, you continue past the leaning Dancing Houses on Damrak to Amsterdam Centraal Station, then follow the old harbor edge along Zeedijk. You will explore how a small settlement on the Amstel became a major trading city shaped by water, commerce, and constant reinvention. The walk leads on to the hidden church of Our Lord in the Attic, the medieval Oude Kerk, the canals around the Red Light District, and finally to De Waag on Nieuwmarkt, where the tour ends. Along the way, travelers will experience grand civic architecture, crooked canal houses on soft ground, traces of old sea defenses, a secret church hidden inside a house, and the striking contrast between sacred spaces and Amsterdam’s famous nightlife streets. Expect memorable moments in Dam Square, by the tilted façades of Damrak, inside the story of hidden worship, and at the fortress-like Waag in the market square.
The ticket to Moco Museum Amsterdam is included in this self-guided audio walking tour. Please note that an audio tour inside the museum is not provided within this bundle. You may redeem it at the museum. After you finish exploring Moco Museum, unpause the tour and walk on Museumplein, where contemporary art sets the tone, then continues to the Rijksmuseum for Dutch national treasures. From there, the route shifts to Melkweg, a former industrial site turned cultural venue, before reaching the Anne Frank House on Prinsengracht. The journey carries on to the Royal Palace on Dam Square, pauses at Van Stapele Koekmakerij, then explores the medieval heart of the city at Oude Kerk and the Red Light Secrets Museum. The tour ends at the Rembrandt House Museum, where one of the Dutch Golden Age’s greatest artists once lived and worked. Along the way, the most memorable experiences include standing before bold modern works, passing from grand civic spaces to quiet canal houses, sensing the weight of wartime memory, tasting one of Amsterdam’s most talked-about cookies, and discovering how old churches, nightlife, and masterpieces coexist in a single city.
The ARTIS Zoo contains a huge amount of different species including penguins, wolves, giraffes, and more. There's also an impressive art collection, a zoological library, a planetarium, and 27 monuments found throughout the area. There's an old-timey zoological library just behind the anteaters, and an excellent vegetarian restaurant with a terrace overlooking the aviary. Yet another crowd-pleaser is the Butterfly Garden, where you can see thousands of fluttering wings. Elephants, penguins, giraffes, jaguars – all the usual suspects and more can be found at the Netherlands' oldest zoo. Built in 1838, the ARTIS campus features several historic buildings (and even older trees), so you'll also get a fix of Dutch culture with your Amsterdam zoo tickets!
Getting around a city that's not your own can be tough. So, when you arrive in Amsterdam, you'll want a hassle-free travel ticket that gets you where you need to go. Not only does this Amsterdam travel ticket get you from Schiphol Airport to central Amsterdam, with unlimited transport around the city, but you can also use it to visit surrounding towns like Volendam, Zaanse Schans and Haarlem. Ideal, if you've found a great hotel deal outside the city!
Cities in Netherlands
About Amsterdam
The best walking tours to do in Amsterdam are:
The best tours in Amsterdam are:
The best indoor tours in Amsterdam for rainy days are:
The must-see attractions in Amsterdam for a first visit are:
Insider tips for visiting Amsterdam
Rolf Laimbock is a local guide who has been publishing tours since 2020 for your discovery of hidden gems and local specialities of Amsterdam on their personal guide page (view profile). Explore their expert tips planning trip to Amsterdam.
When I visit Amsterdam for shopping, I usually skip the obvious chains and head for De 9 Straatjes first. Between the canals, I browse independent fashion, vintage, and design stores tucked into old merchant houses. For sharper local style, I recommend the Haarlemmerstraat and Haarlemmerdijk area in Amsterdam; locals know it for small concept shops, excellent delis, and bookstores. If you visit Amsterdam and like contemporary labels with a more polished feel, Oud-Zuid around Beethovenstraat is a smart choice. In my travel guide Amsterdam, these are the areas I mention most because they combine browsing with some of the best things to do in Amsterdam: walking, people-watching, and café stops.
When I’m in Amsterdam on my own, I always start with a slow walk through the Jordaan early in the morning, before the cafés fill and the canals turn busy. For solo visitors, it’s one of the most rewarding things to do in Amsterdam because you can move at your own pace, browse small galleries, and sit unnoticed with coffee on the Noordermarkt. I often continue to the Begijnhof or the canal belt, which belong high on any list of what to see in Amsterdam. Unlike many tours in Amsterdam, this feels personal. These quieter corners are also among the most memorable attractions in Amsterdam for people traveling alone.
In my travel guide Amsterdam, I usually recommend three full days in Amsterdam as the sweet spot. That gives you time to settle into the rhythm of the city: an unhurried canal walk at dusk, a museum morning, and a neighborhood like De Pijp or the Jordaan where Amsterdam feels lived-in rather than staged. When I visit Amsterdam myself, I find two days can work if you stay central and choose carefully, but four lets you add ferries to Noord or a slow afternoon in the Plantage. For me, the best things to do in Amsterdam reveal themselves when you leave space between plans.
When I want a break from the center of Amsterdam, I head just beyond it to places that still feel connected to the city’s history. The ferry to NDSM is one of my favorite short escapes; in Amsterdam, it gives you a rawer, creative side with street art and old shipyard buildings. I also recommend taking the train to Haarlem for an afternoon, especially for quiet hofjes and excellent small museums. If you’re comparing attractions in Amsterdam with what to see in Amsterdam nearby, these are the places I mention first. Unlike many tours in Amsterdam, they let you feel how the city opens outward into very different neighborhoods and towns.
If you plan to visit Amsterdam around a major event, I’d time it for King’s Day in April or the Grachtenfestival in summer. King’s Day shows Amsterdam at its most exuberant, but I prefer the smaller pockets: families selling old treasures on the streets of the Jordaan and canal-side music drifting through quieter blocks. In my travel guide Amsterdam, I also highlight Open Monumentendag in September, when historic buildings in Amsterdam open doors usually closed to the public. For me, these are among the most memorable things to do in Amsterdam because they reveal the city’s character, not just its postcard image.
When families ask me where to go in Amsterdam, I often suggest the maritime area around Het Scheepvaartmuseum. For me, it’s one of the smartest things to do in Amsterdam with children because the old harbor setting already feels like an adventure, and the full-scale VOC ship draws them in immediately. From there, I like walking toward the Oosterdok, where Amsterdam opens up with wide views and room to move, which parents appreciate. Among the classic attractions in Amsterdam, this area feels less cramped than the canal core. It also works well if you’re deciding what to see in Amsterdam without relying on standard tours in Amsterdam.
In my travel guide Amsterdam, I always say the city makes most sense on foot, with trams for longer stretches. When I visit Amsterdam, I walk the canal belt and Jordaan because distances are shorter than they look, and you notice the details that make Amsterdam special: crooked gables, hidden courtyards, flower boxes leaning over bridges. For neighborhoods like Amsterdam Noord or the eastern docks, I use the free ferry or tram rather than a bike; locals know cycling here can feel hectic if you do not know the rhythm. For me, combining walking with public transport is one of the most practical things to do in Amsterdam.